Brother Aserb, Here is a little of what was written on a website about Bob Marley "Bob Marley Knew Jesus"

However, what most people don't know, and many try to cover up, is the fact that Bob Marley converted to Christianity in 1980. In fact on 4 November 1980 he was baptised and became a member of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.The Jamaicans.com website says that Bob remained outside the church for several years after Rita and the children converted in 1972. Bob was under the spiritual guidance of the archbishop but was baptised just a year before his death, after 3 aborted attempts to convert in Kingston. He backed out each time, says the Archbishop, after being threatened by other rastas. Marley was finally baptised in the Ethiopian Church in New York where less resentments were less inflamed. The Archbishop christened him Berhane Selassie - "light of the Trinity".Yesehaq told Barbara Blake Hannah: "I remember once while I was conducting the Mass, I looked at Bob and tears were streaming down his face. Many people think he was baptised because he knew he was dying, but that is not so... he did it when there was no longer any pressure on him, and when he was baptised, he hugged his family and wept. They all wept together for about an hour."

Brother Aserb, Here is a little of what was written on a website about Bob Marley "Bob Marley Knew Jesus"

However, what most people don't know, and many try to cover up, is the fact that Bob Marley converted to Christianity in 1980. In fact on 4 November 1980 he was baptised and became a member of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.The Jamaicans.com website says that Bob remained outside the church for several years after Rita and the children converted in 1972. Bob was under the spiritual guidance of the archbishop but was baptised just a year before his death, after 3 aborted attempts to convert in Kingston. He backed out each time, says the Archbishop, after being threatened by other rastas. Marley was finally baptised in the Ethiopian Church in New York where less resentments were less inflamed. The Archbishop christened him Berhane Selassie - "light of the Trinity".Yesehaq told Barbara Blake Hannah: "I remember once while I was conducting the Mass, I looked at Bob and tears were streaming down his face. Many people think he was baptised because he knew he was dying, but that is not so... he did it when there was no longer any pressure on him, and when he was baptised, he hugged his family and wept. They all wept together for about an hour."

"Let us not expect the spiritual spring if we don't first pass through the spiritual winter during which the spiritual vermin die. We mustn't expect the divine to blossom within us if the human hasn't first died."

Does anyone out htere know the particulars of Bob Marley's conversion to Orthodoxy?

Bob Marley converted to the Ethiopian Coptic church not the Orthodox Church.Also did Marley stop smoking marijuana when he joined the Ethiopian church? I heard that at one time he was smoking as much as a quarter a pound a week!

Bob Marley converted to the Ethiopian Coptic church not the Orthodox Church.Also did Marley stop smoking marijuana when he joined the Ethiopian church? I heard that at one time he was smoking as much as a quarter a pound a week!

why are you being so judgemental?so what if he did?maybe he repented later on... what is that to you?

"A month before his death, he was awarded the Jamaican Order of Merit. He wanted to spend his final days in Jamaica but he became too ill on the flight home from Germany and had to land in Miami. He passed away at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Miami, Florida on May 11, 1981. Before his death he was baptised into the Coptic Orthodox Church. and took the name Berhane Selassie (meaning the Light of the Holy Trinity in Coptic). His funeral in Jamaica was a dignified affair with combined elements of Ethiopian Orthodoxy and Rastafarianism. He is buried in a crypt at Nine Miles, near his birthplace."http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Marley#Later_career

"There were three aborted attempts by Bob to get baptized in Jamaica and in all instances, he personally cancelled, apparently because he was not fully decided and he was conscious of the consequences the move might cause. His inner circlew of dreads were neither for the idea and actually worked against it. What is to be must be, and so Robert Nesta Marley was finally baptized 21,000 miles away from Jamaica in New York in a low key ceremony attended by Rita and his children seven months before his death. He was christened Berhane Selassie the Light of the Trinity and denounced Selassie in the ritual described by the Archbishop as one whole hour of weeping, sobbing and tears of repentance. He became what Judy Mowatt, one of the I-Threes, Bob’s backing vocalists, would call a ‘Fulfilled Rasta’ and in his death bed, is quoted to have pleaded ‘Jesus take me’.Accordingly, Bob was buried in full rights and according to the order of the Ethiopian Orthodox church, something that did not go down well with Rasta’s especially because his baptism had been very low key and not many knew of it."http://www.kentimes.com/17may05/magazine/magazine2.html

Well, say what you will about the Ethiopian OO Church, but our small immigrant community has helped the Ethiopians here in Houston because they are trying to build a church. They may not be in communion with us, but they are immigrants who need help. They've been having service outside in a tent. I don't know if it's a liturgy or what because I don't know their rules. You may not know Houston, but that's just tough to be outside in this weather for that long and with these mosquitos.

An Ethiopian OO came to our church last week to thank us for the tiny bit of help we could afford.

Sabbas,

No one is claiming here that Bob Marley's life should be immitated or that he's a saint. They were just pointing out that he became an OO Christian. It seems as though he was just learning about the faith, so I find it very difficult to start condemning anything he may have done out of immaturity. I know I've been mistaken about complex theological issues and I hope I'm not judged by God on the depth of my theological knowledge.

No one is claiming here that Bob Marley's life should be immitated or that he's a saint. They were just pointing out that he became an OO Christian. It seems as though he was just learning about the faith, so I find it very difficult to start condemning anything he may have done out of immaturity. I know I've been mistaken about complex theological issues and I hope I'm not judged by God on the depth of my theological knowledge.

why are you being so judgemental?so what if he did?maybe he repented later on... what is that to you?

I never condemned him. I actually was asking a question that I have never gotten answered in the several times I have read about Marley's life and conversion. Did he renounce marijuana when he converted to the Ethiopian church? I would consider this important because part of renunciation of Rastafarianism would be renouncing the belief that smoking marijuana is a Sacrament. Also use of marijuana, unless for medicinal purposes, seems incompatible with any serious form of Christianity.

I also will say that I like Marley and the Ethiopian church quite a bit. I still have "Legend" or his greatest hits album and still listen to Marley now and then. I have a great deal of repect for the Ethiopian church and am always fascinated by its peculiarities and connections to the Old Testament. I was glad when I first heard that Marley came to the Ethiopian church before he died. He finally found a truly historic African Christianity. I pray that he has found a place among those in Paradise.

Sabbas: My band once opened for the Wailers and we hung out with Bob and the guys here and Bob`s house on Hope road in Kingston. When we played with them in`79 , Bob was very sick , but was still smoking alot.To my knowlege , he never publicly renounced pot and in all likely hood ( due to massive chemotherepy ) continued smoking .

Mathew: The deal with the shooting ( `76) was that Bob supported Socialist Micheal Manleys` PNP labor party. It was widely assumed that oppsition leader Edward Seagas` JLP party ( suppoted by the U.S. government at the time) was behind the attemped hit on Bob. All of the gunmen involved were hunted down by Bob`s many freinds in the ghettos of Kingston and were treated with extreme prejudice. Also, after Sellasie returned to Ethiopian from his 1962 visit to Jamaica, ( more or less the begining of the Rastafarian movement) at his behest the head of the Ethiopian Church went to Jamaica to try explain that he ( Sellasie) was not Christ and was a member of the Orthodox Church...but to no avail . To this day,amongst certain "rastas" a person can be seriously injured or killed for suggesting that Sellasie is not the second coming of Christ.

Logged

"Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names." - John F. Kennedy (1917-1963)

Well, say what you will about the Ethiopian OO Church, but our small immigrant community has helped the Ethiopians here in Houston because they are trying to build a church. They may not be in communion with us, but they are immigrants who need help. They've been having service outside in a tent. I don't know if it's a liturgy or what because I don't know their rules. You may not know Houston, but that's just tough to be outside in this weather for that long and with these mosquitos.

An Ethiopian OO came to our church last week to thank us for the tiny bit of help we could afford.

We are trying to do the same thing at our church in H-town. I see afew Ethiopian Orthodox at every liturgy.